A Faithful Father in a Pagan Land
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· 8 viewsJust as the Israelites were called to walk faithfully with their God, so we are today in discipling our families.
Notes
Transcript
Israel was to take care of themselves due to particular dangers that faced them in the land of Caanan. They were liable to forget and abandon God during prosperity and when confronted with Pagan influence. So God charges them with continual focus, complete devotion to the Lord as their duty to God, and as a safeguard against breaking his covenant!
Israel was to take care of themselves due to particular dangers that faced them in the land of Caanan. They were liable to forget and abandon God during prosperity and when confronted with Pagan influence. So God charges them with continual focus, complete devotion to the Lord as their duty to God, and as a safeguard against breaking his covenant!
Bringing an OT Text to Today
Bringing an OT Text to Today
“God told Israel to do this, therefore we should do this too!
It’s not written to us, but for us!
Someone else reading my love letter to Destiny
It is promises and contingents given to the Jews. These were guidelines for their political civil life! God was king, and Israel was his kingdom, this is how it’s to be run!
Christians view of the OT
Christians view of the OT
-This reveals to us our sin nature! We haven’t loved God with our whole heart!
-Christ is the mediator of a New Covenant
Hebrews 8:6-
6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
-It is instructive on how we are to live, good works defined!
11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
A Faithful Father
A Faithful Father
Setting Godly Priorities!!
An Israelite father had to set Godly priories that God would be first.
The responsibility of Father's to keep their own hearts
The responsibility of Father's to keep their own hearts
The Care of Your Own Self
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.
TItus
6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.
We need men who fit this category. Sober minded, self-controlled, Godly strong men.
TItus
Keep What?
A Heart That Loves God!
This is of first priority! Keep your heart in love with God!
2 “ ‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
Revelation 2:
Not following your heart, but directing it to love God! True strength!
19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.
Prov.
Keep How?
Keep your heart inclined to his precepts!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,
10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!
Psalm 119:10
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.
The Need to Provide an Example To Follow
Your Children can watch you follow your God!
David’s rebuke of not reading the Bible from your cell phone!
The responsibility of fathers to disciple your family
The responsibility of fathers to disciple your family
An accountability we must accept!
We will give account for the state of our families!
Authority and accountability go hand in hand!
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
The Church cannot do it for you! The Church will not bear the responsibility for you, it’s yours! The Church can help, and should help, but it’s your responsibility!
Train our children!
6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
First, then, if you would train your children rightly, train them in the way they should go, and not in the way that they would. Remember children are born with a decided bias towards evil, and therefore if you let them choose for themselves, they are certain to choose wrong...
If, then, you would deal wisely with your child, you must not leave him to the guidance of his own will. Think for him, judge for him, act for him, just as you would for one weak and blind; but for pity’s sake, give him not up to his own wayward tastes and inclinations. It must not be his likings and wishes that are consulted. He knows not yet what is good for his mind and soul, any more than what is good for his body. You do not let him decide what he shall eat, and what he shall drink, and how he shall be clothed. Be consistent, and deal with his mind in like manner. Train him in the way that is scriptural and right, and not in the way that he fancies. J.C. Ryle
J.C. Ryle
The surest way to make a pagan is to leave your Children to themselves!
(Example of Eli)
13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.
1 Sam 3:
Take care of the understanding your Child has of God and the scriptures.
Not
If they can argue the age of the earth.
Can they elaborate why evolution is wrong.
Do they understand why other religions are wrong.
Do they understand the importance of a Healthy Church.
Do they know why they should not engage in fornication, or substance abuse!
Those things have their place, but it won’t save their soul! Do they know God, and the Bible!
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The means by which you disciple your families (constant talking of the Word.)
The means by which you disciple your families (constant talking of the Word.)
Tools For Discipleship
The Word
Family Devotions vs No Family Devotions
Family Devotions vs No Family Devotions
Caution: you haven’t fulfilled your responsibilty to your family by merely reading with them every day! This text teaches every day, in every opportunity be talking about your God.
The Point is give them a clear understanding of God’s Word!
A thorough knowledge of the Bible is the foundation of all clear views of religion. He that is well-grounded in it will not generally be found a waverer, and carried about by every wind of new doctrine. Any system of training which does not make a knowledge of Scripture the first thing is unsafe and unsound.
See that your children read the Bible reverently. Train them to look on it, not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, written by the Holy Ghost Himself- all true, all profitable, and able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
See that they read it regularly. Train them to regard it as their soul’s daily food — as a thing essential to their soul’s daily health. I know well you cannot make this anything more than a form; but there is no telling the amount of sin which a mere form may indirectly restrain.
See that they read it all. You need not shrink from bringing any doctrine before them. You need not fancy that the leading doctrines of Christianity are things which children cannot understand. Children understand far more of the Bible than we are apt to suppose.
Tell them of sin, its guilt, its consequences, its power, its vileness: you will find they can comprehend something of this. Tell them of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His work for our salvation- the Atonement, the cross, the Blood, the sacrifice, the intercession: you will discover there is something not beyond them in all this.
Tell them of the work of the Holy Spirit in man’s heart, how He changes, and renews, and sanctifies, and purifies: you will soon see they can go along with you in some measure in this. In short, I suspect we have no idea how much a little child can take in of the length and breadth of the glorious Gospel. They see far more of these things than we suppose. Fill their minds with Scripture. Let the Word dwell in them richly. Give them the Bible, the whole Bible, even while they are young. J.C. Ryle
The Church
The Church
God’s Normal Means of Blessing
God’s Normal Means of Blessing
Blessing to You and to Your Children
6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
It’s the way things normally relate, but not absolutely.
1 Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways! 2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. 4 Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. 5 The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! 6 May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel!
Psalm 128:1-